This was my first by Amalie Howard, and though it's the third in her current series, I felt it worked beautifully as a stand-alone. This was a hot (HOT) and genuinely funny historical romance homage to 10 Things I Hate About You, a 90s classic deserving of all the love it gets here. This is a perfect read for historical romance readers who enjoy more modern dialogue (this was reminiscent of Tessa Dare - intentionally modern phrases used as winks to the reader) and sex-positive (and sex educated!) female main characters. Our ice queen and "shrew," Lady Evangeline (Effie to everyone but Gage, bless him), is a force - passionate about animal welfare, determined to shield her (frustratingly immature) younger sister from true harm, openly curious about sexual intimacy and willing to take exactly what she wants. Our down-on-his-luck Duke is essentially blackmailed into a wager that will lure her to London for the season, and from there, we get all the comedy and betrayal and grand gesturing we could possibly hope for. This lost a tiny bit of steam for me in the third act, but honestly, I had such a great time reading this and can't wait to read the first two in the series now. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader's copy!